The present invention relates to systems, methods and devices for mobile communications and more specifically to systems, methods and devices for facilitating asynchronous message communications.
In response to an ever increasingly mobile society, device manufacturers and communication service providers are offering many different types of telecommunication device and service options to their customers. With the increasing popularity of wireless communication systems such as wireless telephone systems, wireless personal communication systems, and related paging systems, such devices and services allow users of wireless communication devices (e.g. mobile telephones, mobile data devices, personal digital assistants (PDA) or paging receivers) to manage their availability for communication.
These wireless devices are particularly useful for live two-way communications when at least one party is untethered, e.g., driving in a car or at a remote location. In addition, these devices may be used for what may be termed “asynchronous communications” which may typically be one-way or half-duplex, such as when someone uses a cell phone to leave a voice-mail for another party or parties. Some prior art systems and methods may even be used to schedule future delivery of a voice message, even to a recipient that may not have a voice mail service but only a “POTS,” or so-called Plain Old Telephone Service phone.
However, when a mobile device user is out of reach of their local receiving/transmitting facility such as a local base station, the device is unusable for communications. For example, scenarios that typically involve the loss of communicative abilities include traveling on airplanes, traveling on a cruise ship, driving through a cellular area with no or poor reception, or the like. When faced with a lack of service, a user would need to wait until the device is in range of a base station to begin generating and sending messages. Even in the case where there are on-board communications capabilities, such as ship-to-shore communications, or air-to-ground communications, such as the AirPhone service available from Verizon Communications of New York, N.Y., they are typically cost prohibitive. Moreover, these devices do not integrate with data typically contained within the mobile device, such as called party phone numbers.
Similarly, consider a situation such as a user with a cell phone driving through an area with spotty reception. The user may start leaving a message, only to lose reception. The user would then be unsure of whether the message was fully received, whether it was garbled, and so forth.
Additionally, consider a cell phone or other mobile device user desirous of receiving messages from their voice mail. Again, spotty reception, or no reception, would preclude them from being able to acquire or review these messages, except when in range of a base station, cell site, or the like.
Furthermore, consider scenarios where a user is desirous of delivering a message to multiple recipients, possibly on different networks. This message must be individually addressed, created, and sent to each recipient in turn.
Therefore, in view of the above, it would be desirable to have a reliable way of asynchronously composing, transmitting and receiving messages so that the messages may be created or reviewed without the typical constraints imposed by the services and devices currently available in the marketplace.